The President of the Commission seems to have kept her promises by giving to those who supported her and to those who helped her to reach an elementary balance between men-women, north-south and correlation of political forces.
Finland, one of the first countries to publicize the name of a woman, received as a reward the position of executive vice president, while the Spanish socialist Teresa Ribera was seen from the beginning as one of the protagonists of the coming five years.
In fact, given that the socialists had resented the smaller number of commissioners in this College compared to the 14 of the EPP, Ribera takes both the position of executive vice-president and a portfolio with one of the main objectives of the term, which is none other than competitiveness.
Satisfaction also prevails in the Baltic countries, since on the one hand, with the candidate for the position of high representative Kaia Kallas from Estonia, on the other hand, with the appointment of the Lithuanian Andrios Kubilius to the position of defense commissioner, “they are taking back the lost ground and the under-representation of the past five years” as points out a European source.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was also rewarded, securing the crucial cohesion portfolio which was given not just to a commissioner but to one of the six vice-presidents, Raffaele Fitto. It is characteristic that in the new Commission the vice-presidents until now are abolished and the number of executive vice-presidents with stronger portfolios increases to six. In the previous Commission, the vice-presidents coordinated and supervised the work of the commissioners.
The candidacy of Marta Koš, who came as a change to the first candidate with the president of the Commission giving Ljubljana, the enlargement one of the portfolios claimed by many, has to pass internal Slovenian obstacles. With “cold blood” and a former finance minister of Austria, Magnus Brunner, Ursula von der Leyen responded to immigration, which on the one hand is close to Berlin and on the other hand is neutral enough and an intermediate link to reconcile the differences between the member states when this is needed, especially heading towards the implementation of the new pact on immigration and asylum, says a European source.
Agricultural on the other hand goes to Luxembourg and Christoph Hansen, a small and neutral country and not to big countries with a direct interest in agriculture like Poland or France that could try to make their own game.
Finally, the option to move the Mediterranean portfolio to Croatia is expected. Firstly, it is a Mediterranean country with a strong prime minister from the EPP, Andrej Plenkovic, “with a fresh popular mandate after the parliamentary elections in June”, notes a European source, and secondly, with a female candidate who was also the country’s commissioner in the previous term.
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